Are you really in control of your hotel marketing strategy? You may sometimes feel like you’re no longer in control, what with the deluge of vendors, suppliers, channels and segments to manage on a day-to-day basis. While things may sometimes slip through the cracks and mistakes made, you can still turn things around and regain sufficient control to catch up. The following are 5 common ways that marketing strategies get out of control and how you can fix them.

How to Fix Your Marketing Strategy:

1. You’ve no idea how much your OTAs are costing you

OTAs or Online Travel Agents help you get bookings and that’s great. But did you know that fees being paid to your OTAs may affect your overall finances and statements? The question to ask yourself is how much are your OTAs charging you and how much are their commission out of that?

That’s a lot of questions to answer but could bring critical consequences if left unchecked. When owners or managers decide to cut cost, they’ll cut back on expenses that are shown, not hidden fees like the OTAs’s commissions which could really affect your hotel marketing strategy.

Fix it:

Examine your OTAs bookings and document the actual cost of each booking versus the cost of bookings from alternative channels. This will give you a clear picture of what you’re spending on OTA commissions.

2. You’re unable to measure your hotel marketing success

Sure, you’ve come up with great ideas. You’ve led various successful social media campaigns, raised the brand’s profile, increased its followers and even had new photos taken of the hotel. But can you truly measure how your contributions had helped in the hotel’s success? Intangible results don’t usually fare well with owners or management of any establishment as they won’t be able to relate your past successes to your efforts. This could mean bad news for the hotel’s future marketing strategies during budget cuts when bosses scale back on intangible results.

Fix it:

Prove your team’s value in measurable ways by calculating the marketing cost per booking. This will help you know the value of your hotel marketing strategy while allowing managers and owners to finally understand and appreciate how much effort went into each marketing campaign.

3. You’re working with too many vendors

Working with many vendors ought to give you more exposure to the market, right? Wrong. It would only cause chaos and complications. Numerous vendors working separately on different areas of your hotel marketing strategy including social media campaigns, advertising, PR and website designs would translate to you spending a lot of your time coordinating and monitoring on their behalf. Not to mention the frustration you’ll face when you receive duplicated work and various different versions of incoherent marketing strategies that no one would be willing to take responsibility for.

Fix it:

Work with as few vendors as possible. Choose those who produce great work consistently and can handle multiple functions while focusing on different areas.

4. You’re not discussing upgrades to the property with the owners

A hotel stay today is all about the overall experience. Gone are the days when staying in a hotel is only about a bed to lay on at night. Guests are now looking for a complete sensory experience when choosing a hotel, and this includes the right amenities, pleasing aesthetics and additional experiences. Major hotel brands have already recognised this and had invested heavily in upgrades, redesigns and renovations as part of their hotel marketing strategy.

Fix it:

Talk to the owners about investing in redesigns, renovations, and upgrades. Remind them that this is an unavoidable cost with big payoffs and that no amount of retouched photos can change reality. Guests won’t be happy if they arrive tat an older, ageing property that is different from what they were presented with in brochures or online.

5. You’re not rating parity

Setting rates that change on a daily basis for each room on different channels can be confusing and often overwhelming. However, this isn’t an excuse to surrender to the challenge. Don’t give in or you’ll fail to maintain rate and market parity, which is extremely vital for your bottom line. Failing to do so can mean missing out on much-needed revenue.

Fix it:

Stay on top of all channels by investing in efficient automation tools that would help to expand your hotel marketing strategy. You’ll also need to work with a competent revenue manager to monitor your rate strategy.

Having other problems or not sure how to actually implement the fixes? You can leave the work to us at Island Media Management. Our focus on tourism and hospitality online marketing gives us the experience to help you overcome your problems and achieve your goals. Contact us here to start!